As the global financial crisis broke five years ago, G20 Leaders committed to resisting protectionism in all its forms at their Summit in Washington. At their following summits in London, Pittsburgh,Toronto, Seoul, Cannes, Los Cabos and St Petersburg, they reaffirmed their pledge and asked th WTO, OECD, and UNCTAD to monitor and publicly report on their trade and investment policy measures.

The G20 Leaders’ initial pledge not to introduce new restrictive policies for international investment was made on 15 November 2008 at the G20 Washington summit. In the five years that have passed since this commitment was made, monitoring of investment policy developments by OECD and UNCTAD has shown that G20 members have, for the most part, honoured their pledge not to introduce new restrictive policies for international investment. The policy developments in the period covered by this report confirm this stance of G20 members.

Most of the policy changes that governments have introduced in the five-year period tended to eliminate investment restrictions and to facilitate inward or outward investment. Large emerging economies have been active in reducing barriers to international capital flows. Advanced economies had already liberalised international capital flows in earlier decades, and have largely maintained an open stance toward international capital markets and improved transparency.